Did we need a sequel to Emma Thompson's nanny caper? Mary Poppins didn't even get one and it was a spoonful of sugar more inventive than this.

Thompson reprises her role as the wart-covered nanny, this time "deployed" to assist a fraught rural mum (Maggie Gyllenhaal) who is being terrorised by five brats during wartime. Gyllenhaal does a hammy imitation of Thompson and the plot's cornier than Kansas, but this children's tale is not without its small joys; namely Eros Vlahos's haughty, naughty Cyril and Ralph Fiennes's uptight English officer.